Joseph Beaumont
Joseph Beaumont (13 March 1616 - 23 November 1699) was an English poet, clergyman, and academic. Life Beaumont was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, the son of John Beaumont, clothier, and of Sarah (Clarke). He was educated at Hadleigh grammar school, and in 1631 proceeded to Cambridge, where he was admitted as a pensioner to Peterhouse, Cambridge. He earned a B.A. in 1634, and became a fellow of the college on 20 November 1636. Richard Crashaw, the poet, had now passed from Pembroke College to Peterhouse, and in 1638 he and Beaumont received their degree of M.A. together.Gosse, 61. In 1644 Beaumont was one of the royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge, and he retired to Hadleigh, where he sat down to write his epic poem of Psyche. Beaumont fared particularly well during the Commonwealth. From 1643 he held the rectory of Kelshall in Hertfordshir], as non-resident, and in 1646 he added to this, or exchanged it for, the living of Elm-cum-Emneth in Cambridgeshire. He was appointed in the same year to a canonry of Ely. In 1650 he became domestic chaplain to Matthew Wren, bishop of Ely, and held various other sinecures. The wealthy ward of the bishop, a Miss Brownrigg, fell in love with him, and they were married at Ely House in 1650. Beaumont and his wife resided for the next ten years at Tatingston Place, Suffolk. During this period he wrote most of his minor poems. At the Restoration of 1660 Beaumont was made Doctor of Divinity and one of the king's chaplains. Early in 1661 he went down to Ely to reside, at the bishop's request, but Mrs. Beaumont caught the fen fever, and died on 31 May 1662. She was buried in Ely Cathedral. During his wife's fatal illness Beaumont was appointed master of Jesus College, Cambridge, in succession to bishop John Pearson]]; and he moved to Cambridge with his six young children, only one of whom lived to manhood. He restored Jesus Chapel at his own expense; then on 24 April 1663 he was admitted master of Peterhouse. Beaumont had prefixed a copy of Latin verses to the Muse Juridicae of William Hawkins in 1634, and published in 1665, at Cambridge, Some Observations upon the Apologie of Dr. Henry More. An artist of some pretension, he adorned the altar of Peterhouse Chapel with scripture scenes which have now disappeared. His long controversy with Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist, dates from 1665. In 1674 he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, and delivered a course of lectures on Romans and Colossians, which he forbade his executors to publish. In 1689 he was appointed to meet the leaders of nonconformity as one of the commissioners of comprehension. He preached before the university on 5 November 1699, died on 23 November, and was buried in the college chapel of Peterhouse. Writing His epic poem of Psyche is of very great length, extending in its first form to 20 cantos; , it is surprising to learn that its composition occupied Beaumont only eleven months. It was published early in 1648. The allegorical poem represents the soul led by divine grace and her guardian angel through the various temptations and assaults of life into her eternal felicity. It is written in a 6-line heroic stanza, and contains, in its abridged form, 30,000 lines. In 1702 Charles Beaumont, the only surviving son, brought out a new edition, entirely revised, and enlarged by the addition of 4 fresh cantos. Recognition A life of Joseph Beaumont was written by John Gee of Peterhouse, who affixed it to the collection of Beaumont's poems which he first edited at Cambridge in 1749; further information was published by Hugh Pigot in his History of Hadleigh in 1860. The complete poems of Beaumont, in English and Latin, were first edited, in two quarto vols., privately printed, by Alexander Balloch Grosart in 1880, with a memoir in which some additions are made to the information preserved by Gee. Publications Poetry *''Psyche; or, Love's mystery: In XX cantos''. London: John Dawson for George Boddington, 1648 **revised & expanded as Psyche; or, Love's mystery: In XXIV cantos. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, for Tho. Bennett, London, 1702. *''Original Poems, in English and Latin. Cambridge, UK: J. Bentham for W. Thurlbourn, & C. Bathurst, London, 1742. *Complete Poems'' (edited by Alexander Balloch Grosart). Edinburgh: privately published, printed by A. & T. Constable, 1860. *''Minor Poems'' (edited by Eloise Robinson). London: Constable, 1914; Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914. Non-fiction *''Some Observations upon the Apologie of Dr. Henry More for his Mystery of Godliness''. Cambridge, UK: John Field, 1665. *''Remarks on Dr. Henry More's Expositions of the Apocalypse and Daniel''. 1690.Rev. Joseph Beaumont (1616-1699), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Apr. 27, 2016. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Joseph Beaumont, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 27, 2016. See also *List of British poets References * Notes External links ;Poems *Joseph Beaumont at PoemHunter (2 poems) *Joseph Beaumont at Poetry Nook (11 poems) ;About *Rev. Joseph Beaumont (1616-1699) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 * "Beaumont, Joseph (1616-1699)" Category:1616 births Category:1699 deaths Category:17th-century English Anglican priests Category:English poets Category:Masters of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Category:English male poets Category:17th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets